Stepping Up to Serve Charity

Number of Americans who volunteer is on the rise

The number of Americans who volunteered last year rose 6 percent, to 63.8 million, according to a new

government study of people age 16 and older.

An estimated four million more people volunteered at some point from September 2002 to September 2003 than did so during the same period a year before, said the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which conducted the study.

The figures are based on an analysis of the bureau’s Current Population Survey, a monthly poll of 60,000 U.S. households concerning employment-related information. In the September 2003 survey, the bureau included questions about volunteering habits. The survey excluded people in the military, prisons, and mental institutions.

The study found that teenagers showed the largest increase in volunteering rates, with 29.5 percent of them — 4.7 million — reporting that they volunteered at some point during the 12 months starting September 2002. Almost 500,000 more teenagers donated their time, an 11-percent increase over the previous year.

When asked what kinds of groups they spent the most time helping during the year, the largest number of people (34.6 percent) said churches or other religious organizations, while 27.4 percent helped youth groups or education-related institutions, 11.8 percent aided “social- or community-service” groups, and 8.2 percent assisted hospitals or other health-related causes.

Other findings in the report:

• The median amount of time Americans volunteered remained at 52 hours over the course of the year, meaning that half of the respondents spent less time volunteering and half spent more.
• Women continued to volunteer more than men, with 32.2 percent of females saying they volunteered versus 25.1 percent of males.
• Parents with children under 18 were more likely to assist a nonprofit group than people without children in that age range. Married people were also more likely to volunteer than others.

The study did not ask people what motivated them to donate their time.

John Bridgeland, who until last week oversaw volunteerism efforts for the Bush administration, said the bureau’s study “demonstrates that even more Americans are stepping forward to serve in their communities, which is what the president and his USA Freedom Corps set out to do.”

In 2002, the president called on Americans to embrace a new “culture of responsibility” and to commit 4,000 hours over their lifetimes to serve their neighbors and country. He established a new White House office, the USA Freedom Corps, to lead the effort.

Susan J. Ellis, a volunteer-management consultant in Philadelphia, said she has found no evidence that the White House effort has increased volunteering. “I’m not sure the ordinary citizen is even aware of the USA Freedom Corps,” she said. The use of the Internet by volunteer centers, United Ways, and other nonprofit groups to publicize service opportunities may be the real reason behind the growth, Ms. Ellis said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics report can be obtained free at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/volun.toc.htm.

Copies of “Volunteering in the United States” are also available free from the Division of Information Services, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20212; (202) 691-5902; blsdata_staff@bls.gov.